Musings

Grace Tan In Life, Musings, Relationships

7 Years and Going Strong…

I was woken up this morning by a whatsapp message from my father-in-law – “Wishing u both Happy Anniversary today. Have a memorable day of reflection of all the happy events gone by n look forward to many years of happiness ahead. Leave Krysta with us n go enjoy the evening.”

Instinctively, I looked at the date on my phone… was it really August the 12th? I had forgotten completely about our wedding anniversary. I even had to take a few seconds to calculate how many years we’ve been married.

Uh oh… it’s started! The years of being together, always having the other person there, and never really stopping to think about celebrating special events.

I never used to think much about celebrating events like Valentine’s Day or Wedding Anniversaries. But today, a thought flashed through my head, “Perhaps it’s there to remind us to never take the other person for granted. Ever.”

So today, I am grateful for our 7 years of marriage.

I am thankful that I have a wonderful husband who supports me emotionally through all my ups and downs (especially dealing with my worry-wart nature).

I am grateful that he always makes an effort to work on our relationship, especially during the days when we irritate each other so much.

I am amazed at how he loves my family through his actions… by going out of his way to fix my sister’s audio-visual system in her home or changing my dad’s diapers when it’s needed.

I am proud that he is a wonderful son to his own family, making special effort to bring every member of his family out on personal ‘dates’ so he can spend time with them intentionally.

My heart swells when I see him love Krysta with all his heart, how he would uncomplainingly wake up in the middle of the night when she cries, how he makes her giggle during playtime, and how he carries her through all our travels, sometimes for hours in his arms.

I am blessed.

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Taken during a recent family holiday in Cameron Highlands.

Alex Lam In Life, Musings

The First & Last Dance of a Dying Man with his Daughter

He was dying. She loved her Dad more than anything. All she ever dreamt of was to dance with him during her wedding. The problem? She hadn’t found a groom yet.

This heartwarming story tells of an ingenious plan that was devised by Rachel Wolf so that she could fulfil her dream ahead of time, in light of the short amount of time remaining she had with her cancer-afflicted father.

Grab some kleenex and read on…

Grace Tan In Casual Portraits, Family + Children Portraits, Life, Musings, Portraits, Relationships

Cherished Moments & The Hui Family

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One of the most cherished items I have in my house are the canvas prints of my family photos, hung beautifully on the wall of my living room. The photos were taken at various locations and at different times. But I remember each moment as if it was just yesterday. Recently, I started a wall of photos for my little girl, Krysta. Later, I hope to build a staircase filled of memories from various family events… some images could be as simple and routine as a meal at our dinner table.

Compared to our parent’s years when you’d only be taking photos at special events (film was expensive and not everyone owned a camera!)… images now flood every single moment of our life. I know of friends who would shoot burst mode on their phone cameras to capture that one moment where their kid is smiling at the camera. Unfortunately, those images stay in their phone (and the blur ones, if they are like me… sometimes NEVER get deleted… until, you are left with no choice when one day your phone tells you that you are running out of space).

But even with image technology getting better and better over time, it’s pretty rare that a family gets together for professional portraits (How often have I heard of comments by moms who say… The husband is behind the camera…somewhere!). And I know what it’s like to have your photo taken by Mr Tripod. It’s pretty dull and uninspiring.

So I do hope that we will have the honour of photographing your family and building your wall of memories. May each image be a small piece of the puzzle which tells a story of your life.

Recently, we photographed the Hui family. Mark and Mun Tzin are dear friends of ours. Mark is one of our resident photographer and Mun Tzin is an efficient and creative event planner, running her brand Milestones. Here’s a little story about her family.

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Grace Tan In Casual Portraits, Family + Children Portraits, For Photographers, Life, Maternity, Musings, Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits, Promotions, Relationships

July & August 2013 Portrait Promo

Someone wise told me, the only asset that is truly valuable is time. I’ve always been a person who waltzes through life, never really having any set goals, but now, as I am in my mid-30s, having been married for 7 years and as a mother of a 7 month old daughter, I realize I cannot just let life pass me by.

All the more so as I see my sick, ageing parents who are approaching their 80s. I am a little sad that my dad, with his Azheimer’s, will never know his grandchild. My mom, who suffered from stroke in the past, cannot carry my 7kg daughter in her arms.

But I am glad that I had the photos from when Krysta was a newborn, and my mom could still manage to hold her, even though it was for a short period of time.

Or those images of my family when my dad still had traces of his personality intact. (Or that video of my dad singing at my wedding… even though he had forgotten the lyrics to the song… he was just diagnosed with Alzheimer’s then).

I know that I can never turn back the clock to experience these things again. So time is truly precious to me.

Relationships matter.

That’s why we would love to help you record these memories with the most important people in your life. This July and August, book a pre-wedding or lifestyle portrait shoot with us and you’ll not only get to immortalize these moments, but enjoy a discount on our packages.

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Do email us for a full list of our services and discounted rates. Photography must be done within the months of July and August 2013 (subject to availability). We hope to see you soon!

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Grace Tan In Casual Portraits, Family + Children Portraits, For Photographers, Maternity, Musings, Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits, Running a Business, Tips + Ideas

Bloom Workshops #3: Portraits in Penang

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Bloom Workshops is back once again this year for another round of teaching, learning and absorbing all sorts of photography goodness from each other! We ran 2 successful workshops last year – the first was themed “Empowering Female Photographers” and the second, “From Passion to Skill”. This time, we’re headed to the beautiful island of Penang for some inspiring time with each other. You don’t have to be a pro-photographer to attend, as long as you have an interest in photography, this workshop is for you. It’s open to both male and female participants (yes, people do ask!).

The early bird registrations end by 1st of July, but if you do manage to gather a group of 2 other friends who are interested, you can still enjoy the rate of RM1,100 as long as you register before the 9th of August 2013. Three days of goodness together!

The main topics you’ll be learning will be about posing and lighting. We will teach you all sorts of skills on posing couples, plus-sized people, couples with height differences, large groups, families, children and more! One of the practical session involves a trip to the beach and we’ll learn how to do shots like these:

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You’ll also learn how to pose large groups like these:

20120623_CHEN_FAMILYPORTRAITS_002 Continue Reading